Wednesday, 17 April 2013

Mist by Kathryn James

Midnight: a
mist-haunted wood with a bad reputation. A sweet sixteen party, and 13
year old Nell is trying to keep her sister, spoilt birthday-girl Gwen,
out of trouble. No chance. Trouble finds Gwen and drags her through the
mist. Only Nell guesses who’s behind the kidnap - the boy she hoped was
her friend, the cute but mysterious Evan River.

All those fairy
stories Nell’s grandmother told her about girls being stolen by fairy
folk are true. The Elven are beautiful as starlight, fierce as wolves,
and cold as ice. And they want their world back. The fight has been
raging for centuries. Nell’s grandmother should know, she’s a Watcher,
the ones responsible for imprisoning the Elven in isolated iron-bound
camps in Siberia. Only Evan, his fanatical older brother Fen, and a
handful of Elven children are still free.

Fen, hellbent on
revenge, keeps Gwen in their wolf-guarded stronghold deep in the mist.
The price for her safe return? The release of all the Elven – but the
Watchers will never agree. Only Nell can save Gwen.

Time is
twisted through the mist: if Nell stops longer than a night and day, a
hundred years will hit her as soon as she returns and she’ll be old and
withered before she’s even lived. The clock is ticking.

Paperback, 336 pages

Published
September 1st 2011
by Hodder Childrens Books

My Review

Mist is a stunning first instalment that is beautiful, eerie, mysterious and managed to pull me in from the very first chapter!

This
right here is world building at it's best and I simply loved getting
lost in this dangerous but highly intriguing world. The writing is superb
and is full of really rich descriptors - I had no problem visualising
the chilling dark forest.

The characters are wonderful. Main character
Nell is a really quirky, down-to-earth girl who I think a lot of young
teens will be able to relate to. She even has a older sister who is
popular and a bit of a bitch - I really enjoyed watching the 2 opposites
interact.

I loved the sweet romance that has been introduced
here, the alluring Evan definitely turns heads and I liked watching
things start to develop between him and Nell.

The storyline
follows Nell, who manages to end up in the woods looking after her drunk
older at midnight. Even after the weird warning about the woods from
the mysterious Evan. Nell has also heard her Nan's dark tales of the
goings on in the woods, but they couldn't possibly be real, could they?

When
Nell's older sister goes missing, she doesn't quite know what to
believe and she is forced to take matters into her own hands.....

Nell
will learn some very shocking truths that she never could of possibly
imagined and she will be thrown into the unknown with only Evan by her
side! But can he even be trusted?

This is a lightening quick page
turner that will keep you intrigued right up until the very end. I
really enjoyed the ending and I'm really excited to read the next book
FROST!

4 comments:

I really liked this one too, and the second book was even more exciting. Nell is a great heroine, so brave! I hope you'll get a chance to read Frost soon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a third book.

I was just going to say my good friend Maja reviewed this book and loved it and I see she was already here. I think it sounds like a wonderful MG series and I am keeping an eye on it for Risa when she is a bit older!